National Agriculture and Food Research Organization

In 2025, an outbreak of equine influenza occurred among draft horses at Obihiro Racecourse in Hokkaido, Japan. The number of horses showing clinical signs increased dramatically in April. The proportion affected was significantly higher in 2-year-olds than in older groups. The proportion that developed fever during the outbreak was significantly higher than that observed among Thoroughbreds during the 2007 outbreak. In non-epidemic periods, the geometric mean hemagglutination inhibition antibody titer of 2-year-old draft horses was significantly lower than that of 2-year-old Thoroughbreds. These draft horses had received fewer vaccinations than the Thoroughbreds. Less frequent vaccination likely led to a lower antibody titer and a higher final attack rate in the 2-year-olds and in the overall draft horse population.

Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is a key mediator of allergic reactions. Recent studies have suggested that chimeric IgE targeting cancer antigens exerts anti-cancer effects. However, whether IgE production is induced endogenously in cancer-bearing hosts remains unclear. We measured total IgE concentrations in healthy dogs (n=18) and dogs with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; n=10) before and after surgery. IgE concentrations did not differ between the healthy and HCC groups but decreased in nine of the ten dogs after HCC surgery. Statistical analysis indicated that HCC surgery was significantly associated with reduced IgE concentrations, suggesting endogenous IgE production in response to HCC. Further investigations with larger sample sizes and measurements of cancer-antigen-specific IgE are warranted to confirm these findings.

Background/Objectives: With increasing life expectancy, interest in healthy aging has grown substantially. Dietary habits are among the key factors that contribute to achieving healthy aging. This study analyzes the relationship between dietary habits and the age-health association in older adults, using the first two years of data from an ongoing annual cohort study conducted in a region of Japan. Methods: We used observational data from approximately 1200 community-dwelling males and females aged 55 to 75 at baseline, drawing on the first two years of a ten-year annual cohort study conducted from 2023 to 2032. First, dietary habits were classified using an ordinal latent block model (OLBM), a model-based clustering approach applied to food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) data. We then examined whether the age-health gradient-measured across 33 indicators-differed significantly across the derived dietary habit types, using random effects models. Results: Dietary habits in the analyzed sample were categorized into six distinct types. Parameter estimates from the model suggest that the extracted patterns represent a continuum ranging from low to high dietary diversity. Regression analyses indicated that, in females, a negative association between age and LDL-C levels was observed among those with highly diverse dietary habits. Conclusions: The data-driven classification of dietary habits based on FFQ responses highlights the potential importance of dietary diversity.

Amid the growing global demand for sustainable crop production, plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs) have gained attention as the systems provide stable, optimal growth environments for crops, and are largely unaffected by climate change. However, a limitation of widely used light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in PFALs is their decreased energy conversion efficiency at high output levels, prompting the search for more efficient light sources. This study focused on laser diodes (LDs), which has shown superior energy conversion efficiency, as an alternative. We developed an LD lighting system capable of mixing red and blue light at arbitrary ratios and mounted it onto a commercial gas-exchange measurement system. Using this system, photosynthetic parameters in rice were obtained under conditions of red light alone and as well as combined red and blue light illumination. Under red LD illumination alone, steady-state CO2 assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rate in rice were significantly higher than those under red LED illumination, whereas intrinsic water-use efficiency decreased due to a relatively greater increase in stomatal conductance. Notably, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate exhibited pronounced temporal oscillations with a period of approximately 900 s, which closely corresponded to oscillations in stomatal aperture confirmed by microscopic observations. Under combined red and blue LD illumination, steady-state photosynthetic parameters did not differ significantly from those under LED illumination; however, the dominant oscillatory frequency observed under red LD alone was not detected, and some photosynthetic capacity parameters tended to decline. Furthermore, CO2 response analyses revealed that, despite lower CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance responded more strongly to changes in intercellular CO2 concentration under combined red and blue LD illumination. Taken together, these results demonstrate that LD lighting, particularly red LD, enhances stomatal dynamics and induces characteristic oscillatory behavior compared with LED lighting. While red LD appears to be a promising cultivation light source for PFALs capable of maintaining high photosynthetic activity, the physiological impacts associated with blue LD, including potential reductions in photosynthetic capacity, require further study to optimize blue-light proportions for rice cultivation.

For this study, first, the composition of phytoseiid mite species was examined at vineyards in Shimane Prefecture, western Japan, in 2023 and 2024 using quantitative sequencing (QS) and nucleotide sequencing. Amblyseius eharai and Amblyseius andersoni were the most dominant species. Then, the proportion of sodium channel mutations (M918L and L925V/M) involved in pyrethroid resistance was examined using another QS and nucleotide sequencing. Results revealed wide distributions of both mutations in A. eharai and the former mutation in A. andersoni. Results also revealed the presence of M918L in Neoseiulus barkeri and Neoseiulus californicus, but not in Euseius sojaensis. Genotyping for the other mutation sites using the collected phytoseiid mites revealed that all A. eharai and A. andersoni individuals had S1539T, as did some N. californicus individuals. These results suggest that phytoseiid mite species, with the exception of E. sojaensis, have reduced sensitivity to pyrethroids in vineyards in Shimane Prefecture.

Alterations in pest ecology due to climate change can affect crop production. Understanding the rate and period of pest development is essential for predicting population dynamics and determining the optimal timing for pesticide application to ensure stable crop production. In this study, we aimed to develop a mechanical method for determining the developmental periods of rice planthoppers and evaluate the impact of climate change on these periods over a 42-year period. We evaluated interannual variations in the developmental periods of two rice pests, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and Sogatella furcifera (Horváth), using light traps to capture data between 1980 and 2022 from 20 areas in Kyushu, Japan, a region of East Asia severely affected by rice planthopper outbreaks. Meteorological data revealed a trend of increasing daily mean temperature (2.2-4.5 × 10-2 °C year-1). A significant correlation was also detected between the length of developmental period and temperature (P < 0.001). For both N. lugens and S. furcifera, a significant trend toward progressively shorter developmental periods was observed over time, even after accounting for differences in the starting dates of development (P < 0.01). These results indicate that for pests, developmental periods have been progressively shortening in response to warming associated with climate change. This study provides important insights for predicting future pest ecology under climate change conditions based on results obtained from rearing experiments conducted in laboratory. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.